Ninilchik's controversial move into subsistence fishing on the upper Kenai River has netted few fish and no reported conflicts on the water, federal officials say.
Only 108 people obtained permits to dipnet or fish by rod, and they caught just 410 sockeye. That compares to a state personal-use dipnet fishery in the mouth of the river that draws 20,000 families who catch at least 100,000 and sometimes more than 200,000 sockeye every July.
What some sportsmen feared as a grab for salmon has proved a minor change in harvests, at least in Year 1 of the federally approved program putting nets in the upper river and doubling bag limits for rod-and-reel anglers who live in the Kenai Peninsula's rural zones.
Most of those who fished the Kenai and Russian rivers on the new subsistence permits were from nearby Cooper Landing. Besides these locals, sportfishermen from across the state and world flock to the rivers.
Besides the 410 subsistence sockeye, they caught one rainbow trout. Fishermen did not report taking any king or coho salmon in dipnets; the rod-and-reel season remains open.
Fishermen said confusion about the program in its first year, difficult access and relatively small salmon runs might have contributed to the size of their catch.
Another factor was a quiet change in the Ninilchik Traditional Council's focus, they said. First, the council had persuaded federal authorities to give their town priority for Kenai River fish, 80 miles from its home. Then the council negotiated with the state to double its educational gillnet fishery on the Cook Inlet beach at Ninilchik. Native families caught and distributed 300 king salmon that way, along with thousands of sockeye, council President Greg Encelewski said. That likely meant less fishing on the Kenai and Russian rivers, he said.
"If we have the resource in our backyard, that's our preferred way to go, by far," Encelewski said.
The educational fishery, meant to mirror traditional harvests, allows Ninilchik tribal members to sign up for rotating shifts manning the net at the beach. The council now hopes to make that harvest permanent while suggesting some access improvements to the new Kenai River subsistence fishery, he said.
NO CONFLICTS
Federal law grants subsistence priority for specific fish stocks in board-approved numbers to Alaskans classified as rural residents. On the Kenai, only Cooper Landing, Hope and Ninilchik residents qualify.
Neither state nor federal wildlife law enforcement agents have reported conflicts between subsistence fishermen and sport anglers, said Gary Sonnavil, Soldotna-based fisheries biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There were no permit violations.
"It's very gratifying that we haven't had any complaints," he said.
Another reason for the peace may be that there were few subsistence fishermen to crowd the sport anglers. The two times Sonnavil went to inspect the site where most of the dipnet fish were caught -- below the Russian River Falls -- he found no one fishing at all.
Of the 108 subsistence permits for the federal waters of the Kenai and Russian rivers, 71 were from Cooper Landing, 29 from Ninilchik and eight from Hope. The 410 sockeye harvested before the dipnet opening closed last week was far below the permitted 4,000.
FEWER FISH FOR OTHERS?
Small as the harvest was, some sport anglers see it as the beginning of an erosion of fishing opportunity for other Alaskans who are classified as "urban" even though some on the Peninsula live in more rural environs than Cooper Landing or Ninilchik.
Angler Les Palmer, who lives in Soldotna and testified against the fishery when the federal board considered it, said the harvest will grow in time. He compared it to the state's dipnet fishery at the Kenai's mouth, which now includes 20,000 families.
"Of course it will grow," Palmer said of the new fishery. "It's so depressing."
Fishermen and officials listed several reasons people stayed home or fished elsewhere, such as at the Kenai River's mouth. Access to the approved subsistence areas was a recurring theme.
Cooper Landing retiree James Givens was among the subsistence fishermen who limited their effort because they didn't want to carry gear and fish a couple of miles back from the Russian River Falls.
"I'm 69 years old, and I could barely carry a 50-pound sack of dog food to the basement," Givens said. "How am I going to carry all that gear and the fillets from 10 fish?"
Instead of dipnetting at the falls, he used a rod to fish the Kenai, one day taking home the federally permitted six sockeye where the state's bag limit is three.
DISPUTED TERRITORY
Subsistence dipnetting also is allowed downstream, next to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge's Moose Range Meadows, near Soldotna.
There, though, the fishermen need boats. Encelewski said the Ninilchik council will ask for shore access in the meadows next year.
While the first-year harvest was low, the debate over whether Ninilchik residents should have a right to upper Kenai fish persists.
Givens, noting that he has Indian blood himself, said in the old days, the upper Kenai River was Kenaitze Indian territory and incursions from the Ninilchik Tribe would not have been tolerated.
"The only people that think they should be up here are the people from Ninilchik," he said.
Sonnavil said he was surprised at the number in Cooper Landing, population 357, who participated.
"In previous discussions with folks up in Cooper Landing, and talking with their (Alaska Fish and Game) advisory council, it didn't seem like there was that much interest in the federal subsistence fishery there," he said.
Some rural residents embraced the food gathering as a way to reach back to traditional Alaska lives, Givens said.
"It can be a gathering place for the community, and it can be a teamwork type of thing," he said. "There are things that are a heritage that one has. Why shouldn't I do it?"
Find Brandon Loomis online at adn.com/contact/bloomis or call him in Soldotna at 1-907-260-5215, ext. 24.
